The CEO of SACE, Alessandro Castellano, will take part on February 3-4 in the business mission to Egypt, led by the Minister of Economic Development Federica Guidi. The investment program “Egypt the Future”launched by the Egyptian government envisages 49 projects in 8 strategic sectors in which Made in Italy can position itself well and seize the associated opportunities. Moreover, Italy is already one of Egypt's main trading partners: counts on the stable presence of over 100 Italian companies and achieved 2,8 billion in exports in 2014 (a figure that could reach 3,4 billion euros by 2018, +21% in four years, according to SACE estimates ).
In Egypt, SACE currently has a portfolio of insured commitments of around 1,6 billion euro, mainly concentrated in the energy, petrochemical and infrastructure and construction sectors involving both large Italian companies and many SMEs.
On the occasion of the first visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi to Italy on 25 November, SACE has already signed a collaboration agreement with the Egyptian Ministry of Investments, laying the foundations for medium-long term cooperation between the two countries and supporting the implementation of transactions and projects of mutual interest (in particular: infrastructure, electricity and energy from renewable sources, agro-industry, irrigation systems and water treatment ).
In the energy sector, SACE also guaranteed the 210 million euro loan to support the order awarded to Ansaldo Energia by the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) for the expansion works of the "October 6th" power plant, near Cairo (Giza district). The loan, with a duration of 13 years, is fully insured by SACE and will be disbursed by a pool of banks led by HSBC. As part of the project, EEHC has entrusted Ansaldo Energia with the design, construction and start-up of a new 600MW open-cycle power plant, which will make it possible to double the energy generation capacity of the “6 Ottobre” site.
